Australian literature is in peril—this is not an exaggeration. The government says that it will remove PIR (parallel import restrictions) on books, a copyright arrangement that has allowed Australia to punch well above its weight to become the fourteenth largest publishing industry in the world, without any government subsidies. Consumers can already buy books online from anywhere—but the government wants to take territorial rights away from our authors and publishers, even though these rights are protected in the US, the UK and Canada. Defend books.